Adherence and persistence associated with an appointment-based medication synchronization program

Making MTM implementable and sustainable in community pharmacy: Is it time for a different game plan?

“…19 Chronic medication refill synchronization, wherein patients' multiple chronic medication refills are synchronized to be refilled for delivery or pick up once per month, has emerged as a structured effort to improve medication adherence. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] In a recent study, patients enrolled in a medication synchronization program were between 3.4 and 6.1 times more likely to be adherent than those patients not enrolled in the program. 20 Medication synchronization programs can be used as a first line approach to address adherence issues.…”

“…[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] In a recent study, patients enrolled in a medication synchronization program were between 3.4 and 6.1 times more likely to be adherent than those patients not enrolled in the program. 20 Medication synchronization programs can be used as a first line approach to address adherence issues. Moreover, once patients are enrolled in the program by making monthly contacts to check for adherence and review medication use pharmacy staff can help to determine if patients are experiencing any drug-related problems, which can then be addressed as part of level 2 MTM.…”

PCMHs, ACOs, and Medication Management: Lessons Learned from Early Research Partnerships

“…Community pharmacists are working with the PCMH to identify causes of nonadherence and to coordinate services to change the behavior and improve the patient outcomes. The Appointment-Based Model (ABM)-a process by which patients schedule a time to meet with their community pharmacists on a monthly basis to pick up all of their refills and have a mini-MTM session to improve medication management 14 -was established in this project to improve patient medication adherence by synchronizing • Early, frequent, and thorough communication among research partners (or potential partners) appears to be the key to a successful long-term project.…”

Community Pharmacist Attitudes on Medication Synchronization Programs

“…10 Initial investigations of medication synchronization programs show that patients who have signed up for the program are satisfied 11 and have improved claims-based refill rates compared to those that have not enrolled. [12][13][14] A limitation of these analyses of secondary data, however, is the potential for residual confounding, particularly due patient self-selection into the medication synchronization program through their voluntary sign-up, possibly resulting in greater tendency toward adherence than their matched counterparts who perhaps are not as committed to their regimen and therefore would not want to be locked into a rigid refill structure. 9,15 One study of medication synchronization without a clinical component found patients that voluntary signed up for synchronization already had high levels of adherence and only improved their rates slightly after participating in the program.…”